“I should have thought of repellant. Mosquitoes don’t usually bother with me. Hang on. I’ll be right back.”
She lay back, eyes closed, waiting for her man to return to her. With a healing herb? Or maybe a flower for her hair? She heard his footsteps, felt him crouch beside her, then something clammy smacked her thigh.
“Hey!” She sat up. He’d slapped mud on two of her bites. Smack. More mud. “Cut that out!”
“It’s a poultice. It’ll draw out toxins.”
“It’s mud and it’ll make a mess.” She grabbed some from her thigh and tossed it at his chest.
“Hey…I don’t have any bites.” He gripped her wrists and wrestled her to the blanket, looking down at her as though he wanted to just take her. His moss-green eyes lit with emerald fire.
Go for it. She liked feeling captured by him, wanted his mouth on her, his thighs trapping hers.
But he backed off, released her hands and rolled onto his side, bracing his face in a palm. “Sorry I got you all bit up.”
“It was worth it. To get to know you better.”
“I guess that’s good.” But he didn’t seem so sure.
“Of course it is. It’s great.” She would not let him withdraw again. “Tell me more. Tell me a secret, Rick, and I’ll tell you one.”
“A secret?” He frowned.
“Nothing big. Just a little thing I’d love to know about you.” She watched him start to object. “Here’s mine. Remember that photo you took of me on the chaise? I framed a print of it and put it by my bed.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. To motivate myself to keep striving.”
“What’s wrong with who you are now?”
She blinked, startled by his question, and a truth pushed through. “If I don’t keep trying, I’m afraid I’ll just settle. Be ordinary.”
“You could never be ordinary, Samantha. You are amazing.” The look on his face warmed her like a sudden smile after deep sorrow.
“Now it’s your turn,” she said, sensing a shift between them. “What’s your secret, Rick?”
She placed her hand on his bare forearm, relishing the quiver of muscle there. These very muscles could wrap around her so tightly she’d have trouble drawing a breath. She wanted that so much. Her whole plan for the day had gone up in smoke. Now that she knew him better, she wanted him more, not less.
“Okay,” Rick said. “Here it is. I’ve never wanted a woman as much as I want you right now.”
His gaze seared through her, white-hot and demanding.
Then take me. The words rose in her mind, but she couldn’t say them. The next move was Rick’s.
She held her breath, trembling like the leaves overhead, and watched Rick decide.
12
TAKE ME. Rick read Samantha’s desire in her eyes, which had gone from clear blue to as smoky as a hot spring. Her lips parted, her tongue traced the inside of her bottom lip and her body trembled beneath his.
She plain glowed, as she had in the shot he’d taken of her in the studio. She was right about that double image that appeared when you captured the person entirely.
He’d never known a woman quite like her. Sweet and shy and eager and bold all at once.
Make love to her.
He wanted to. More than anything, he wanted to bury himself in her lush body, her smart mind, her lively soul. Maybe then he’d be able to think straight enough to do his job.
It’s not about the job. You plain want her.
The truth was a gut punch he had no choice but to acknowledge. He took in the sight of her, the way she trembled, and panted, and how her smell mixed with the scent of soil and green things and water in some exotic opium that soaked in deep, making him drunk with it.
And just like that his double life melted away and he was simply Rick West with a woman he was falling for. The instant he lowered his mouth to hers, all the rules, the straight lines he hung on to, went fuzzy and soft and he had to have her.
Samantha kissed back, her tongue insistent, tangling with his. She shoved her fingers into his hair and gripped his skull as if she feared he’d quit on her.
He felt like laughing because he wasn’t about to stop. Not now. This felt too right out under the open skies he loved.
Was he slipping into old habits, when he selfishly went for whatever he wanted, screw the consequences, the way Brian had lived? A warning slammed through him, but he ignored it in favor of the wonder of Samantha’s mouth, the give of her body, his conviction that this time he’d get inside. All the way.
Bracing himself on his elbows, he cupped her breasts. They felt good through the soft cloth, but he wanted her naked, so he pushed up on her shirt.